When my daughter and I lived in Greece in the early 1980s, we lived in Ano Glyphada, a neighborhood in Athens just where the flats by the airport lifted up to meet the base of the foothills that formed the spine of the Attic peninsula. I rented… Read full post »

Viewers are torn: is this the most inept  and disturbing political ad ever? Or a deliberatly  inept and disturbing political ad, cunningly designed to go viral. 

But now it seems that Hitler is getting into the act, too.

If there is a phrase which makes my socio-political antennae begin to quiver, that will be anything that begins with the words “The People’s – whatever.” The People’s Park, the People’s Republic – the People’s Whatever. I suppose at one time – aro… Read full post »

One of the underappreciated sidelights of having lived in Southern California was that of seeing bits and pieces of it masquerading (sometimes quite unconvincingly) as someplace else on TV. You may know, for instance, that all those times that Kirk and Spock set down on a planet where they actually… Read full post »

 If the personal stuff is anything to go by, then 2006 was the year of living dangerously. It’s the year when… Read full post »

 (In no particular order of importance...)

Women of a certain age should not wear mini-skirts. Ever.

Teabags are a scourge and invention of the Devil. Real tea is made from loose leaf tea. And the pot is rinsed out with boiling water, first.

Children should not… Read full post »

(Sam's basic burger, top elevation)

(Side elevation, Sam's basic burger - wish I had included a salt-shaker or a plastic fork, to establish the scale. Ne'er mind - drool-worthy, though.)

... then you must be in Texas. And very likely, you are… Read full post »

It didn't seem to have made much of a ripple  in the political blogosphere, but two years ago  among the various writers' discussion groups, websites and e- newsletters, discussion of the Amazon-Booksurge imbroglio achieved a melt-down-and-drop-through-to-the earths' core degree of nuclear… Read full post »

 (In light of the interesting and unexpected political upset in Massachusetts on Tuesday, I thought this essay of mine from a year ago had some renewed relevance - the fact that we have fallen into a bad habit of deferring to aristocrats of every flavor.)

 Funny old world that. It… Read full post »

(So, last weeks' photo essay about roadside Texas was a hit - but I think it might have given readers the impression that my interests are limited to landscapes and still life-arrangments alone. No, I take pictures of people, too. Herewith a representative collection of my pictures ofTexans)

… Read full post »

My parents lost the house that I spent school-years-to-mid-teens in, when it was condemned, by eminent domain, in order to build the 210 Freeway--- not lost, precisely, for it was pried out of Mom and Dad’s grasp by the minions of the State of California only upon offer of what they… Read full post »

Working on the next book, too drained to pound out the requisite 500-800 words, where a simple picture will do. Herewith, a look at stuff by the side of the road in Texas. Strictly scenic and or/alive, which means that - Sorry, you'll have to go someplace else for the titzup… Read full post »

Yes, there is a tea-shop in the village; Bracken Village that is. A tea-shop, serving fresh-brewed pots of tea, and scones and all of that, in two Victorian-style rooms and on the veranda of a quaint little house, restored lovingly, and sitting among others of like, around a/… Read full post »

I’ve been offered  an opportunity to review a new movie about the Donner Party - which seems to be one of those arty flicks, with some moderately well-known actors in the cast,  which appeared at a couple of festivals and then went straight to DVD. I can&r… Read full post »

 (From the work in progress - tentatively called "Gone to Texas." It's shaping up as a kind of prelude to "Adelsverein" - in that it follows the life of a woman who came to Texas in the 1820s ... and also offers an explaination of how her family came to be… Read full post »

I belong to a Yahoo discussion groups for fans of Westerns, and one of the curious things is how very passionate some of the members are about their favorite authors, and western series, some of which are well known, like Elmer Kelton and some quite obscure like Amelia Bean, who wrote… Read full post »

I was never, even in my convinced feminist phase, much of a fan of hate crime legislation. Tacking on extra special super-duper penalties for a particular motivation in committing a crime against a person or property seemed… well, superfluous. Defacing someone’s property, beating, threat… Read full post »

Yep, I am starting again, on another book – so here I go, into that kind of giddy and receptive stage, doing research and reading the usual tall stack of relevant books, where the details of plot and character are not quite nailed down yet, where I might at any moment… Read full post »